Report: SKT get demolished 0-3 against SSG

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Published on: 05/11/2017

With the whole world watching from the Bird’s Nest in China, many assumed that the series would go either way. With both SKT looking slightly shaky and SSG looking on point, no one could truly predict which way it would go. All anyone could guess is that it would be close. But, no one could have predicted what happened next.

Photo: Riot Games

The start of the series looked like SKT had taken a page completely out of TSM’s play book. After drafting an early/offensive early game composition with the Gragas in the jungle, SKT looked to play hardball by overpowering the early game and making aggressive early plays. Yet, SSG seemed to always have an upper hand, with Peanut always seeming to be caught out and not able to make any move across the map. With all the lanes being pressured from Ambition’s Zac, SKT had to just watch as their base crumbled, and objectives fell into SSG’s hands.

During game two, it felt even worse. Although SKT attempted to play more aggressive, which did earn them a slight gold lead, it didn’t amount to much. It just made SKT over-confident, resulting in SSG finding a window of opportunity, with CuVee getting a massive flank and lock down onto four of SKT, and resulting in the window of opportunity for SKT to take over the game being slammed shut.

Photo: Riot Games

With game three being SKT’s last hope, it seemed like they had their wind back. After subbing in Blank for Peanut, it seemed like SKT were ready to make the reverse sweep happen, and the game was much closer than the others. Blank exerted quite a bit more pressure, securing plenty of early game kills and objectives. This lead to SKT having a significant lead, almost 4k over SSG, and multiple towers, bearing down on SSG’s mid lane towers.

Unfortunately for SKT, they were working on a time limit. With the early game power of Gragas on their side, they did well to gather up a good lead. But, the draw-back came from the fact that they did not have any other damage source besides Bang on Tristana. Faker was put on Karma duty, resulting in him only having a decent amount of crowd control and exertion, but almost no damage. As such, he could not be relied up on in the late-game to dish out a second source of damage. With this in mind, it became quite easy for SSG to play around and posture correctly to stave off decent teamfights. With SKT routed and no other sources of damage, SSG turned the game around, destroying SKT’s nexus for the complete 3-0.

Photo: Riot Games

This is the first time that SKT has been completely swept within any Worlds tournament that they have attended. This is made even more amazing by the simple fact that, in every Worlds tournament that SKT have attended, they have come away with the victory. For once, the SKT dynasty has fallen, and everyone is left to wonder, “Is this just a simple hiccup, or is SKT done?”